Michael Giacchino‘s remake of Them! just got an infusion of star power behind the scenes. Matt Reeves, the director of the 2022 superhero blockbuster The Batman, is producing the giant creature feature for Warner Bros. WB Pictures studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy revealed the news in a new sweeping interview with Deadline.
De Luca and Abdy discussed a number of upcoming projects exploiting WB‘s massive IP library, including a new The Matrix film with Drew Goddard, a reimagining of The Bodyguard, and new Goonies and Gremlins projects from Chris Columbus. Reeves is a high-profile star in WB’s stable, and is no stranger to giant creatures: he directed Cloverfieldin 2008, which saw a giant monster rampage through NewYork City. Many of his subsequent films have had beastly stars, as well: he helmed the vampire chiller Let Me In, and two installments of Fox‘s revitalized Planet of the Apes franchise. Next up for him is the hotly anticipated The Batman 2. Them! will be the first full-length feature for Giacchino, who is best known for his prolific work as a film composer: he directed the Disney+ Halloween special Werewolf by Night in 2022.
What Is ‘Them!’ About?
1954’s Them! (which is not to be confused with Them, the Prime Video horror anthology series) was one of the first of the giant mutated monster movies of the 1950s, which turned the fear of nuclear radiation into the tangible threat of giant, irradiated creatures. In Them!, the creatures are ants, mutated to the size of boxcars by atomic testing in the US Southwest. New Mexico comes under attack from the creatures, who so terrify their victims they can only refer to their attackers as “Them!” A small cadre of humans figure out the threat, including a state police officer (James Whitmore, The Shawshank Redemption), an FBI agent (Gunsmoke‘s James Arness), and a father-daughter duo of scientists (Miracle on 34th Street‘s Edmund Gwenn and Riding Shotgun‘s Joan Weldon) and track them all over the Southwest. The film climaxes in a spectacular battle in the ant-infested tunnels beneath Los Angeles. The film was a box office hit, and unlike many of its giant-monster ilk, is now considered a classic of science fiction horror.
Giacchino discussed the remake in 2023 at a Collider screening of the colorized version of Werewolf By Night. He talked about the themes of the film being timely even now: “It was sort of discussing the oncoming nuclear age that we found ourselves in and were woefully unprepared for as human beings, and so I thought there’s so much going on in the world—that was clearly a lesson that we didn’t learn as humans—and it feels like it’s a story that could be told again today with a lot of the s*** that’s going on in the world. I love that movie dearly. It’s a very special film.”
Them! is in development; no casting or release date has yet been announced.
via Collider